This is the END
by rubberduckeeartist13
Summary: The demons of the Tartaros Guild have been defeated and the guild has been rebuilt. Natsu has taken home the Book of END desperate to uncover its secrets. When Natsu starts reacting oddly to Gray's magic, how will they figure out what's going on? Will this be the end of Fairy Tail? This is an angsty tale of the transformation of Natsu into END. GRATSU fanfic. Adult themes. Violence
1. The Book of END

**This story takes place after the Tartaros Arc. Zeref does not take the Book of END and the guild does not disband.**

 **I do not own Fairy Tail**

The guild was gone. The Fairies were gone. All that remained was rubble in the deserted streets of Magnolia. Ashes were falling from the sky, drifting along the light wind before landing on pieces of charred wood and crumbling stone. A red and yellow flag with the signature Fairy Tail emblem lay on top of the remains of a once glorious guild hall, waving in the wind, torn and burnt just like everything else.

A lone figure stood on a hill overlooking the ruins of the city that had before been a bustling center of innovation and excitement. Ashes coated his spiky hair, turning the vibrant pink into a dull grey. He looked at the ruins, the outcome of _his_ failures, with a look of defeat. Tears poured an endless stream down his face and after a few moments he turned away, walking silently toward the dark forest surrounding the city and disappearing into the foliage.

 **1 Year Prior**

Natsu Dragneel sighed as he opened the door to his and his best friend's small cottage. It was a tiny home, only one large room and a small bathroom connected to it. Upon entering the front door, a hammock could be seen on the left wall, across from a couch on the right. Shoved in a corner in the back of the house was the kitchen, barely large enough for one person to stand in and adjacent to the house's only bathroom. Every wall, however, had its own unique decoration. Above the hammock, which served as Natsu's bed, were hundreds of photos that the dragon slayer had cut out, each featuring photos or articles about his fellow guild members. The rest of the wall space around the home showcased hundreds of artifacts gathered from past missions. Above the couch and mounted on the wall were a jewel-encrusted scepter and crown. Next to it lay the green head of a dragon costume. Shining in the kitchen chandelier was a glowing blue lacrima shard. On another wall was a maid costume in a glass case. The artifacts cluttered the house and yet gave it a homey appeal, each one reminding its occupants of a fond (or sometimes not-too-fond) memory.

Natsu dragged his feet through the house before kneeling at the foot of the couch. In his hands lay a parcel secured in his treasured white scarf. He unwrapped it, revealing an old nondescript book. Curious, he paused as his fingers traced the three large black letters etched into the cover of the hefty book. He wanted desperately to open it, to read its contents and figure out what kind of magic was instilled in the book, but instead took a pillow off of the couch in front of him and yanked off the pillow case, tossing the plain pillow back on the couch and placing the book inside the pillow case. He gently pushed the sheathed book under the couch and stood up before promptly falling face-first onto the sofa. Turning on his back to get more comfortable, Natsu mused over the events of the past few weeks.

Fairy Tail had been locked in battle with a small group of demons calling themselves the Tartaros Guild, trying to wipe magic off of the face of the Earth and defeat their creator Zeref with their 'superior' demon powers. It was pretty much the usual task for Fairy Tail but no one could have suspected the emotional turmoil that would ensue during the battle. Natsu's eyes began to tear up as he recalled the valiant battle between Acnologia and his father, Igneel. The dragon slayer rubbed his eyes, angry at the injustice of it all. He had spent YEARS searching for Igneel and when he finally appeared again, he died not long after. Natsu also cried for his family. The other dragon slayers who were just as confused as he, Gray who had found and lost his father and inherited an unknown and strange magic, and Lucy who was forced to part ways with her oldest and most trustworthy celestial spirit.

Natsu covered his eyes with his forearm as his silent tears turned into heart-wrenching sobs. _Igneel.. This whole time.. How could i not know?!_ His hands found the pillow he had uncovered earlier and hugged it to his chest as if his life depended on it.

 _What do I even do now? I spent my whole life looking for you and now you're gone, my friends are all hurt and I don't even know what to do with this damn book!_

Natsu glared at the book though the couch, desperately wanting to set it on fire and forget it existed. Usually he wouldn't even think about it and just destroy the book for all the trouble it had caused, but Igneel had adamantly warned him from disturbing it in any way, and despite the hurt he felt due to his father's lack of communication over the years, he still trusted him. Natsu had barely managed to snatch the book before Zeref could get his hands back on it and desperately wanted to understand its secrets. Apparently he would have to wait though. He's never been very good at waiting...

Sending one last venomous look through the couch, Natsu stood up and rubbed his eyes free of tears. He knew that his friends back at the guild would need him for emotional support and he had promised Happy that he wouldn't be long. The book under his couch was also giving off an eerie aura and he wanted to get away from it as soon as possible.

 _I'm gonna have to find a better hiding place for that thing…_

With one last glance around the house, Natsu walked back out the front door and into the frigid winter air last night. Despite never feeling cold due to his heat magic, he shivered. He couldn't help but feel as though the battle with demons had just begun.

Pushing his negative thoughts away he walked with determination towards the guild hall, focused on what was most important at that moment: his family. _Don't worry Lucy, Gray, Wendy, Gajeel, we will get through this together. I'll always be there for all of you._ He plastered his signature wide smile on his face and shoved his own sorrow into the corner of his mind, knowing his guild would need the happy Natsu they all love. With that thought he continued on his path to his friends, the book of END momentarily forgotten.

…

Back at Natsu's house the Book of END lay ominously on the floor, leaking small amounts of magic energy. A small tear in the cover stuck out against the seemingly unharmed pages, microscopic amounts of black fog seeping into its pillow case container.

The battle with demons HAD in fact just begun.


	2. Comfort

**I Do Not Own Fairy Tail**

"Hey everyone!" Natsu said cheerily when he entered the guild hall. H tried to keep his voice mostly muted wanting to be respectful in light of the recent turmoil everyone had been through. The guild hall had been repaired even before Team Natsu had returned, since Fairy Tail's strongest team had remained behind to clean up some of the mess left by Tartaros and keep a lookout for any further suspicious activity.

"Hey Natsu!"

"Are you OK?"

"Stop looking so happy dammit!"

The last one seemed to come from the metal dragon slayer at a table nearby but Natsu ignored him and walked straight to the bar where Lucy was sitting solemnly. Mirajane noticed him behind the bar and sent him an affectionate glance before placing a plate of food and an overheated cup of tea in front of him. The fire mage raised an eyebrow at the tea, since Mira usually just served alcohol. Understanding Natsu's silent question she quietly spoke, "It's a cinnamon medicinal tea Wendy prepared that heals wounds and decreases anxiety, you look like you need it."

Natsu gave her a thankful nod and turned to Lucy who had been staring at her own cup of tea since he sat down. He gently placed a hand on her back and she startled, looking at Natsu with first shocked and then saddened eyes.

"Natsu! Hi, sorry I didn't see you there.. I was just lost in thought i guess…"

"You know I'm always here for you Lucy, you don't have to pretend to be fine."

Lucy stared into his eyes and saw a sorrow that matched her own, despite the warm smile he was giving her. As Natsu returned her gaze, he saw something break in them, saw the slow crumbling as the tears came forth. Suddenly her face was buried into his chest and he began running his fingers soothingly through her hair as she let out all of her emotions. Natsu kept himself together, wanting to be strong for one of his best friends, and hugged her tight to his chest.

They sat together in silence until Lucy had run out of tears. Pulling away from Natsu, she rubbed her eyes and let out a big yawn, thoroughly drained and ready to sleep. Natsu noticed her tiredness and pushed himself to his feet before offering her his hand.

"C'mon Lucy let's take you home, you're exhausted." Lucy nodded and took his hand. Once she was on her feet, Natsu released her hand and instead wrapped his arm around her waist, ignoring the teasing from some of the other guild members about him and Lucy being a cute couple. He guided her through the middle of the guild hall and out the doors, towards her home on Strawberry Street. They walked in comfortable silence, both feeling the other's' pain but knowing that there was nothing they could do to ease it. When they reached the front door to Lucy's apartment, the celestial mage turned to Natsu and broke the long lasting silence.

"Thank you Natsu" she said quietly, pulling him into another hug. Natsu returned the hug warmly.

"No problem Lucy, anything for you. Do you want me to stay with you? Are you ok on your own?"

"I'll be fine. I was actually going to call my spirits to spend time with me. They deserve to know what happened and how A..Aquar.. How she saved us all." Natsu wiped another stray tear away from her face.

"Ok as long as you have someone. Just try not to overdo it with the magic it takes to summon multiple spirits at once. I'll see you tomorrow?"

Lucy smiled "of course! Thank you for everything. And don't forget I'm always here for you too, try not to overthink things and spend too much time alone." She gave him one last quick hug before rushing inside and closing the door. Natsu stared at the door for a while before he decided to return to the guild, walking back the same way he came.

...

When Natsu arrived at the guild this time, he quietly opened the door and slipped inside rather than announce his presence as usual. A low voice in the corner spoke to him as he passed by.

"What Flame Brain? Can only make a grand entrance once a day? Here to shower everyone with your fake ass smile again?"

Natsu, automatically zeroed in on his target and ready for a fight, lit his fists on fire and growled.

"What's eatin' you, popsicle?! And who are you calling fake?! At least I'm not sulking alone in a corner!"

"You wanna go Fire Breath!?"

"HELL YEAH I DO ICE BREATH, FIGHT ME!"

Unfortunately Erza happened to enter the guild right at that moment and glared menacingly at the pair who were oblivious to her presence.

"Gray! Natsu! This is not the time for a guild fight and we just finished rebuilding! If you are insistent on fighting then GO OUTSIDE and leave this guild intact!"

The pair flinched simultaneously and began walking outside, afraid of the punishment she would give had they stayed indoors. Besides, both were equally desperate for a good brawl and didn't really care _where_ it took place as long as they could punch each other without interruption.


	3. Devil Slaying Magic

**WARNING: Gratsu is gonna go along sweet and slow so don't get your hopes up too much yet.**

 **I do not own Fairy Tail**

The two mages bickered all the way to their destination: their old fighting spot near the river. Natsu faced Gray before taking a battle stance, determination and anger in both of their eyes.

"ICE MAKE.."

"FIRE DRAGON…"

"HAMMER!"

"IRON FIST!"

The two mages went on the offensive at the same time and both blocked the other's attacks. Natsu crushed through Gray's ice hammer and met Gray's fist. Both mages were blown back by the force of the attack and the ice shards from Gray's hammer were flying everywhere, giving both boys shallow cuts. Natsu's eyes met Gray's before launching another attack.

"ICE MAKE CANNON!"

"FIRE DRAGON ROAR!"

The attacks continued to cancel each other out, neither getting the upper hand. Natsu and Gray could both feel their magic depleting and after an hour of exchanging attacks were nearly out of power. In one last frantic attempt to win the duel, Natsu readied his fire for one last intense iron fist attack. Predicting Natsu's attack from his fighting stance Gray decided his best bet to win the battle would be to use his new magic.

"FIRE DRAGON IRON FIST!"

"ICE DEVIL'S ZEROTH LONG SWORD!"

The boys ran at each other, one with a flaming fist and the other with a sword of dark ice. Natsu dodged under the first swing of Gray's sword and sent his fist into the ice mage's abdomen, sending the ice mage flying. Gray landed on his back and groaned in pain, unable to get back up and covered in cuts and bruises.

Natsu raised his fist in the air and whooped a tired cry of victory.

"HAHA take that ice princess! I won! I wo-" Natsu suddenly doubled over in pain, falling to his knees and letting out a blood curdling scream. His right arm felt like it was on fire! His eyes scanned over his arm and saw a small cut right below his shoulder.

 _What the hell?! I must have been hit by Gray's sword before I launched him. Holy shit it burns! Is this what it feels like to be on fire?!_

The small cut on his arm had started oozing a black liquid and Natsu screamed again out of pain and terror. _What the hell is happening to my arm?!_ The burning feeling began to spread from his arm to the rest of his body. He began to claw at his arm, almost wanting to cut the whole thing off. It felt as though his insides were boiling, slowly melting his entire body from the inside out. The pain was becoming too much, Natsu's vision began to blur and he barely registered the concerned voice calling his name before his vision went black and he fell roughly to the ground.

…

"Natsu! Natsu, what's wrong?!" Gray had been lying on the ground paralyzed when he heard his companion scream, a scream that had cut through him like a knife, a scream that rattled his very core. Desperate to help his rival, Gray sat up on one knee and tried to stand. His right ankle, however, gave out and he fell right back down again. Frustrated and desperate, he let out a groan of frustration and quickly crawled to where Natsu was kneeling, still screaming in pain.

Gray grabbed Natsu by the head and shook him a little.

"Natsu, what's wrong dammit!?" Tears were streaming down the dragon slayer's face and his left hand was frantically clawing at his right shoulder. Gray could see him weakening and it was mere seconds before Natsu let out one more strangled whimper and fell face-first onto the ground.

"Shit!" Gray tried to lift his rival up and turned him onto his back, inspecting his body for the cause of his pain. His dark blue eyes were drawn to the hand still on Natsu's right shoulder, right next to his guild mark. Black fluid seemed to be dripping through his fingers.

"What the hell?" Gray whispered in confusion. He gently removed Natsu's hand from his shoulder and gasped. The wound was shallow but disgusting. Black something leaked out of it and the edges of the cut were purple and swollen. Gray could see the claw marks surrounding the cut that were from Natsu's nails trying to claw out the fluid. The veins around the cut were bulged out and also turning darker purple. It seemed to be spreading, the cut getting worse each second. Gray quickly looked at their surroundings before his eyes landed on the grey shirt he had discarded before the battle. He crawled to it quickly before returning to Natsu and tearing the shirt into strips he could use to cover the gaping wound. One strip he folded into a square that he used to press against the cut and the other he haphazardly tied around his arm to keep the cloth in place.

Gray's thoughts were a mess. _What even happened? This has never happened before, I don't understand.. This must have been from the devil slaying sword but...why..?_ Gray's eyes started to tear up upon realizing that this had been his doing. _Shit! I'm such an idiot! I shouldn't have used my devil slaying magic, I don't have enough experience with it yet and I don't even know what it's capable of._ Still Gray was confused. As far as he knew, this wasn't supposed to happen. Trying to remain calm, he attempted to rise again, annoyed when his ankle gave out once again.

 _Shit, I don't have time for this! I need to get to the guild now!_ Gray glared at his ankle before using his magic to make a boot of sorts out of ice. He stood back up and walked a few stiff steps with it, deeming it sturdy enough to handle the job. He turned back to Natsu and knelt, lifting the lifeless body onto his shoulders in a fireman's carry before slowly and painfully starting the walk back to the guild. It was about half a mile away but it seemed like a thousand miles for how fast he could hobble over.

Grunting in frustration and mild pain, he shifted Natsu on his shoulders and continued walking.

"Geez could you lay off the everything? You're so freaking heavy flame brain." Natsu let out a quiet grunt and Gray smirked. _Wow even when he's unconscious he's still a pain in the ass. Seriously though, I'm gonna break my back carrying this idiot, I should've just left him on the ground by the river. I'm sure he would've woken up...eventually.._ Gray mulled over the black stuff seeping out of his arm and the screams of pain he had heard earlier. _Or maybe not.._ With a renewed sense of urgency, Gray shuffled faster toward his guild and prayed that Wendy was in the guild hall.

…

When Gray reached the large wooden doors to Fairy Tail, he breathed a sigh of relief as he pushed open the doors with his body, his shoulders aching from Natsu's weight. As soon as he was through the doors, Gray yelled at the guild for help.

"WENDY?! HAS ANYBODY SEEN WENDY?!"

All eyes were on Gray at that moment and the entire guild filled with gasps. Everything was still for a moment before the barrage of questions began.

"What happened to Natsu?!"

"Is he OK?!"

"Wow Gray you actually won a fight for once?!"

"Woah it looks like his veins are about to burst!"

"Natsu!"

"Gray what happened?!"

"I think I saw Wendy in the infirmary in the back!"

Gray silently thanked whoever had given him the information he actually needed and limped to the back room. When he entered the door to the infirmary he saw Wendy tending to another patient on one of the beds.

"Wendy!" he gasped in relief. Wendy turned around and her eyes widened at the sight of Natsu on the ice mage's back.

"What happened? Is Natsu ok?!" Gray was too tired to answer and simply put Natsu down on the bed nearest him and clutched the side of the bed desperately, feeling as though he was about to collapse. Wendy noticed his exhaustion and quickly rushed to put a chair she had found next to another bed under him. The small sky dragon slayer then rushed to Natsu's side and began scanning his wounds. She noticed the bandage hastily wrapped on Natsu's shoulder and gently tugged it off, gasping in shock and disgust when she saw the wound hidden underneath.

"Gray what is this?" She asked quietly, examining what should have been a shallow and unseeming cut. The black ooze was still dripping out and the veins around it looked even more pronounced and darkly colored than before.

Gray kept his eyes on Natsu's face when answering. "I don't know. I cut him with my devil slayer's sword I think but I have no idea why it looks like that. It's not even a deep cut."

Wendy's hands began to glow as she used her magic to try and heal Natsu's wound, trying to find the source of the infection.

"Something feels weird about this. The wound feels almost like dark magic. And it's spreading. It's a long shot but I think I might have something that might work…" She turned around and walked to a nearby medicine cabinet, opening it and rummaging through a collection of ointments and bottles. Gray watched as she returned with a vial of liquid that was so white it seemed to be glowing. The small healer unstoppered the vial and poured half of its contents on the wound. The black ooze began to sizzle and let off a rancid odor. Gray let out a short yelp and quickly covered his nose.

"What the hell? What is that stuff?! It smells awful!"

"Hmmmm…" Wendy frowned and dabbed the excess blood and dirt off of the wound.

"Interesting.. Well this stuff is a solution I made shortly after I returned here from the Tartaros battle. It's a solution made by mixing my healing magic with light magic from the master. I used it to heal a lot of wounds that were caused by the demon curse powers-"

"But i don't understand" Gray interrupted, "my magic is demon _slaying_ magic, it shouldn't have the same effect as the demon's curse power, it's supposed to _destroy_ demon magic." Wendy finished bandaging the wound and tied it off before meeting Gray's eyes. Both of them were confused.

"I don't know Gray.. but I'm going to tell Master about this. Maybe it might be good to hold off on using your devil slayer magic until we do more research on it. You could always ask Levy and Lucy to help you research it, I'm sure they would be more than willing to help. And I will help you any way I can too!" Wendy gave Gray a big grin and the ice mage ruffled her hair fondly.

"Thanks Wendy, why don't we head to Master Makarov together and tell him what happened?" Wendy nodded happily in response and turned to leave the infirmary, Gray following close behind until he realized he still had a sprained ankle and fell unceremoniously onto the floor.

"Shit...oww.."

"Gray!" Wendy rushed to Gray's side frantic and asked what happened.

"I sprained my ankle during my fight with that idiot" he said, pointing an accusing finger at the unconscious dragon slayer on his bed. "I guess I forgot about it until now."

Wendy's eyes widened in realization, "you mean you carried him all the way here on a sprained ankle!?" Her look turned to that of admiration. "Wow! I only hope to be as strong as you someday!"

Gray chuckled softly. The little dragon slayer was adorable and he wished he could preserve her innocent and hopeful personality forever. It was a great balance to his own pessimistic behavior.

"Don't worry Wendy, after your ordeal with Face, I think you might just be stronger than me. Besides, without your healing powers, half of the guild would probably be dead." Gray winked at her with a smile and she blushed shyly at the ground. "As for this," he continued gesturing to his ankle still trapped in ice, "how about you just help me into a bed and go get Gramps to come in here so we can talk."

"Ok!" Wendy helped pull him to his feet and let him lean on her shoulder as they walked to the bed right next to Natsu's. He sat up on the bed and told Wendy to go get the master.

"I'll be back in a second Gray! I'll heal your ankle while we talk to the Master, I still have enough magic energy left, since the light solution did most of the healing for Natsu!"

With that, Wendy left the infirmary to go grab Makarov and Gray relaxed his head back onto a pillow, utterly drained of energy. He desperately wanted to go home and sleep but wouldn't let himself give in until he got to talk with the Master as well as Levy and Lucy about researching his magic.

He glanced worriedly at Natsu's still form to his left. He seemed to look better, his face serene and the veins beginning to recede back into his arm with a normal coloration. Still.. Something weird was going on here. _I have a feeling there's more to this than we can see.. Natsu I'm so sorry, if it weren't for Wendy and her light demon magic destroyer potion thingy, I don't know what would have happened.._

Gray's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the infirmary door creaking open. _Well that was fast.._

"GRAY!?"

 _Oh shit._

An armor clad figure with long scarlet hair burst through the door. Gray immediately stiffened and sat up straight as a board, putting his hands in front of him to ward off any possible attacks.

"Listen Erza, I didn't know what would happen! Don't worry he's fi-"

"ENOUGH! I heard that you were seen carrying an unconscious Natsu through the guild! How dare you hurt your friend to such extreme measures, and in a petty fight no less!" Erza shot the ice mage a glare that could have killed him on the spot.

"Erza I didn't mean to I swear!"

"Explain. Now."

"Ok well we were fighting like usual," Erza tensed and Gray flinched before continuing, "and we were nearing the end of our fight both wiped out, when he punched me and sent me flying. He actually won technically, since I guess I was knocked out first, but don't tell him that cuz I don't want him to think he's stronger than me, I was really holding back and he was just being an idiot and if I had used my true power earlier I would have definitely won and I don't really know what happened but there's definitely something going on and we can just pretend th-"

"Gray! You're rambling! Get to the point!

"Well-"

"Ah Erza you're here too! Good, now how are you doing son?" Makarov and Wendy had just chosen to walk in at that moment and walked past Erza toward the beds where Gray and Natsu were resting.

 _Well I feel like I'm in an interrogation and I hurt literally everywhere._ "I'm fine Gramps," he said coldly. He really just wanted to go home. Natsu was fine right? So what's the big deal? Yet Gray knew he better talk to the others about everything, if something happened to Natsu.. _We may hate each other but I could never look at myself the same if I really hurt him, or worse killed him.._

Erza seemed to have calmed down and grabbed a chair to sit by Gray's bed while he gave them all an explanation. Makarov went to sit on the left edge of his bed while Wendy began working on healing his right ankle.

"Well we were fighting as per usual and I don't really know what happened but I used my devil's slayer sword while he slammed me in the gut with an iron fist attack. I was knocked back and on the ground when Natsu started shouting about his victory and whatever." Gray clenched his fists and shuddered at the memory of his rival's gut-wrenching scream. "I don't know what happened but suddenly he started screaming.. I could feel his pain through his scream, it was awful." Gray's face was grim and he glanced at Natsu beside his bed, relieved at the sight of his relaxed and peaceful face. Erza took his hand, prompting him to go on.

"I crawled over to him and saw the wound on his shoulder. I must have cut him with my sword before he knocked me back. It was the ugliest wound I've ever seen, some gross black goopy shit was coming out of it and his veins were turning dark purple. There was a little blood but not much, it wasn't even a deep wound really.. He fell unconscious and I wrapped it up and carried him back here where Wendy took care of him." Recounting the story made him fill with guilt and the other's must have seen it because they all looked at him with pity.

Wendy decided to take over and interjected, "the wound was unlike anything I have ever seen but kinda reminded me of the dark wounds I had seen on those injured by the demon curse magic." Makarov and Erza looked at her in surprise.

"I used the light solution on him" she continued "and it worked."

This time both mages gasped, confused about how this could have happened.

"Are you sure, child?" Makarov asked, a look of deep thought plastered on his features. Wendy nodded her head.

"The black fluid on his arm disintegrated when the solution touched it. It was a similar reaction to the other demon wounds I healed." Wendy pat Gray's leg letting him know she was done healing and Gray gave her a look of thanks. Erza was staring down at her lap deep in thought and Makarov was looking at Gray skeptically, arms crossed..

"Hmmmm…" the Master mused. "Well I have no clue what happened, the only possible thing I can think of is that something is either wrong with your magic or it possesses some kind of power that we don't know about yet. Either way, Gray, you are forbidden from using this magic on any of your guild mates, alright? In fact, I would prefer if you didn't use it at all unless absolutely necessary!"

Gray nodded his head in acquiescence. "Fine. I was going to ask Lucy and Levy if they could help me look into devil slaying magic."

The guild master jumped off the bed, nodding. "Splendid idea m'boy! You can also examine the texts in the Library of Sorcery. For now though, you should rest and heal up, looks like your fight did a number on you both." He walked to the door of the infirmary before turning around one more time. "And Wendy you should rest too, you've been doing intense work since the battle." Wendy jumped at hearing her name before nodding and heading out the door after the master.

Erza who had been sitting lost in thought the entire time finally looked up at Gray when they were the only ones left. Gray was staring at his hands in his lap, silent.

"Gray." Said mage looked up and met the gaze of Erza's steely dark brown eyes. He raised a questioning eyebrow. "When you're rested come find me, I will help you look for information on your magic" Suddenly she paled "..despite the awful memories I have at the Library of Sorcery…" She shuddered and stood up after Gray muttered a quick thanks, exiting through the door after the others.

Gray sat silently for a while, thinking about how his magic was apparently more dangerous than he thought. _I really hope we can figure this out. I can't avenge my family and kill END with a power I don't even understand._ He glanced at his hands and then at Natsu, before swinging his legs over the side of the bed to sit in the chair by Natsu's bed. He examined the fire dragon slayer's face.

"I hate you dumb flame brain, why'd you have to go and get actually hurt? I mean are you so weak you were taken down by a tiny cut on your shoulder? How pathetic." Gray's gaze softened and he hesitantly pressed his hand on Natsu's cheek, noting with surprise how soft his skin was, despite the fact he always got into fights and could grow dragon scales on his face.

"I'm sorry. I wish I knew what happened." The unconscious dragon slayer lay motionless. Gray got lost in thought watching him, until exhaustion took over and he began to drift off to sleep.


	4. Dreams and Soft Hair

**I don't own Fairy Tail**

Natsu was suffocating. There was intense pain everywhere, his whole body was on fire and he felt, for the first time, like he was being burned alive. Suddenly it faded. The fire seemed to recede, tracing back to the arm that had been hurt in the battle with Gray. Natsu could feel his body again, and looked at his hands before emitting a yelp. Or it would have been a yelp had he been able to make a sound. His hands were covered in dragon scales, his fingernails turned into talons. Looking at the rest of his body he saw scales covering his arms too. Noticing his head felt heavy he reached up and was shocked to find a pair of horns attached to his head. _What the hell?! THIS IS AWESOME! I'VE TURNED INTO A REAL DRAGON MAN! ...But where am I and what am I doing here?_

Natsu looked around at his surroundings but couldn't see anything other than red fog. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of light. _What's that?_ He walked towards it, the light steadily glowing brighter with each step. When he reached the light, he noticed it was actually what looked like a doorway, but it was so bright he couldn't tell what was on the other side. Being Natsu he didn't even think to assess risks before walking through the door.

Natsu blinked as he was surrounded by light. When it had subsided and he could finally see, he found himself staring at a tree and under the tree sat small boys around five and three years old, the first black haired and the other pink.

 _Wait, that's… Me!_

Sure enough the pink haired boy under the tree was a small Natsu, wearing a red shirt and brown pants. He was grinning happily, talking to the other boy next to him. This one had black hair with a black shirt and the same brown pants. He was smiling fondly as well. As the adult Natsu got closer, he could hear the two kids talking.

"You should have seen me big brother! I was just about to catch it when all of the sudden a baby dragon appeared out of nowhere and chased it off!" _Big Brother?_

"Why were you chasing a rabbit anyway?" The darker boy asked, raising an amused eyebrow.

"Cuz I wanted to eat it!" The young Natsu looked gloomily at the floor while the darker boy laughed.

"Haha of _course_ you wanted to eat it, I swear Natsu, all you ever do is eat."

"Hey no I don't! I do other things!"

"Oh yeah, like what?"

Little Natsu's eyes glinted and he grinned, "LIKE FIGHTING YOU!" He jumped on top of the older boy and both started laughing as they wrestled each other.

The older Natsu while immensely confused watched the two with a smile, when suddenly the world faded out around him and he was placed in a new scene. Everything around him was blueish grey. _Awww man, I wanted to see if I would win that fight or not! Ugh.. now where am I?_ Without warning the oxygen around him disappeared. Natsu couldn't breathe and started panicking. He saw a new light above him and found that he could swim through the air, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't reach the light. _Fire Dragon Boosters!_ Nothing happened _Shit_ _I don't have magic in here! Someone help!_ Natsu felt himself run out of oxygen, felt himself drowning on nothing, and everything started to fade…

Natsu opened his eyes wide as oxygen flooded back into his lungs. He coughed violently though made no sound. Noticing his new surroundings he saw a the same black haired kid leaning over.. _Wait that's me again._ The black haired kid was sobbing, yelling at the small Natsu who was laying unmoving on the ground. _Am I…Dead?_ Natsu walked closer to the pair and could make out the words of the older boy.

"Natsu!? Natsu I'm so sorry! I didn-I didn't...I didn't mean for th-this to ha-happen!" He buried his face into little Natsu's chest and gave an agonized cry. For some reason Natsu felt a sense of dread and sorrow watching the scene, but was confused as to what was happening. The scene started fading once again and Natsu found himself once again alone, this time floating in blackness. From what he could feel, his talons and scales were gone, but he couldn't see anything. _Dammit, I really liked being a dragon.._ Natsu thought with a pout.

Unfortunately it seemed the pain was also returning. He felt sore all over and his right shoulder really hurt. Slowly opening his heavy eyes he found himself met with a white ceiling. _I must have been dreaming this whole time.. What a weird dream._ The black haired boy in his dream had seemed so familiar and everything was still crystal clear in his mind. Natsu couldn't help but feel like the dream _meant_ something but he had no idea what.

As he regained feeling in all his limbs he registered a pressure on his left arm and and lifted his head to find a mop of bluish black hair splayed everywhere. For a second he thought it was the boy from his dreams but as soon as he got a whif.. _Oh. It's just Gray._ He would recognize that minty winter scent anywhere. He put his head back down and absently used his free arm to pat Gray's head. _Ooh it's so soft!_ He ran his fingers through Gray's hair contentedly. _Who would've thought Ice Princess has such nice ha-_ Natsu froze in shock. _What the..? WHY THE HELL IS ICE PRINCESS EVEN HERE AND WHY AM I PETTING HIM?!_

Natsu debated whether to throw Gray off of the bed he was laying in or keep petting his soft hair, but seeing as he was exhausted and drained of energy, he decided on the latter. _Eh I'll get you next time Frosty..._

It took Natsu a moment to register everything that had happened. All he remembered was fighting Gray and suddenly being consumed by fiery agony. Despite the painful memory, the dragon slayer smirked. _Hehe I still won though, Gray was totally knocked out after I punched him!_ Natsu looked down at the sleeping ice mage again, silently questioning why his magic had affected him so negatively. He looked down at his now patched-up shoulder desperately hoping that the gross black stuff wasn't on his arm anymore. He absently continued petting Gray's soft head as he wondered what was wrong with either himself or the devil slayer's magic.

After some time Natsu felt Gray shift and let out a quiet moan. The fire dragon chuckled and kept his hand in Gray's hair as Gray drowsily raised his head, looking around and taking in his surroundings. His eyes landed on Natsu in front of him and he breathed a sigh of relief at seeing the fire mage awake. Natsu watched in amusement as the look in Gray's eyes quickly morphed to that of confusion and shock. Natsu laughed loudly this time.

"HA! Gray you should see your face! You look so dumb!" Gray gave him a blank stare and he laughed even harder. Gray's eyes narrowed and he felt anger boiling within him.

"What the hell fire breath?! My face does NOT look dumb, YOU are the one laughing like a total idiot! And why they HELL ARE YOU PETTING ME?!" Natsu's laughing slowly died down and he looked at his hand and shrugged.

"I dunno, you're hair is soft, I like it" he explained but quickly added "it's still ugly like the rest of you though!"

"You're the ugly one Pyro!" Gray retorted angrily. Natsu saw his expression quickly change to a more peaceful one as the dark haired mage leaned his head into Natsu's hand, sighing contentedly. Apparently he enjoyed the attention. Gray met Natsu's eyes and stared at him apologetically. "I'm sorry Natsu." Natsu smirked and ruffled Gray's hear roughly, ignoring his rival's yelp of protest.

"For what, almost killing each me?" Gray looked down in shame as Natsu continued. "Don't worry about it Ice Princess, almost killing each other is what we do after all. Beside's I think I finally understand how it feels to be a roasted chicken! I gotta say, I don't know if I like it that well.." Gray knew this was Natsu's way of saying 'I forgive you' and he chuckled.

"Roasted chicken huh? Too bad I didn't finish the job" he teased with an evil smile "could've saved the world _loads_ of trouble had I just taken you out."

"Hey! Don't forget that I won you ice prick!"

"Oh really? Says the one lying in the infirmary bed!"

"You were out cold before I was, and this only happened because of some dumb luck!" Gray was about to retort when he saw Natsu's lips turn down into a frown. He knew what his rival was thinking, they both were wondering what had really happened to Natsu when he was cut.

"I don't know why it happened." Gray said, answering Natsu's thoughts. His eyes furrowed as he continued, "I talked to Gramps, Wendy and Erza, none of them know what's going on. Even more confusing is that the wound reacted to a demonic magic antidote of sorts which suggests the gross black shit coming from the wound was associated with dark magic or curse power. I don't understand though!" Gray slammed his hand on the table and Natsu gave him a concerned look. "My power is supposed to vanquish evil not create it! How can I use this power to defeat demons if I possess magic that is no better than that of a demon itself!?"

Natsu stared at him in surprise, before his gaze hardened. "Listen Gray, there's nothing wrong with your magic." Gray looked into the dragon slayer's determined onyx eyes, surprised that his rival wasn't spitting insults or blaming him for the whole ordeal. _Then again, Natsu's always been protective of his guild-mates, he never lets any of us hate on ourselves._ "There might be another explanation to this, maybe your magic isn't faulty and there's just something else going on."

Gray raised a skeptical eyebrow, "oh yeah? Like what?"

"Who knows?!" Natsu exclaimed with a smile that was way too cheerful. "Maybe someone shot me from afar and it wasn't your hit at all!"

"Don't be a dumbass!" Gray hit his fist against Natsu's head but smiled as well. "I told Makarov that I would ask Lucy and Levy for help researching devil slaying magic and I've been banned from using it until I find out what happened. I might be gone for a few days, I'm probably going to go to the Library of Sorcery and hope to find something there."

"I'm going with you!"

Gray looked at Natsu like he was crazy. "What?!"

"I'm going with you!" Natsu grabbed his shoulder and held his gaze while Gray shook his head in disbelief.

"This magic almost killed you and now you want to help _research_ it?! As in you're ok with sitting in a library?! Reading books? Do you even know how to read?!"

Natsu scoffed indignantly. "Of course I know how to read, I'm not an idiot! But yeah. I wanna know what the heck is going on and you could use all the help you can get in that giant library!"

Gray shook his head again and briskly stood up. Natsu swung his legs over the bed and stood up too. They walked in silence but kept 'accidentally' running into each other. By the time they reached the infirmary door the gentle pushes had become an all out shoving war, only ending when they reached Levy and Gajeel in the opposite corner of the guild. Gray stepped in front of Natsu and stopped in front of the table Levy and Gajeel were sitting at.

"Gray! Natsu! Are you guys ok?" She glanced worriedly at the bandage on Natsu's right arm.

"Yeah we're doing fine" Gray replied cooly. "Listen Levy, I need your help.."


	5. Train Rides

**This chapter ended up a lot longer than intended. No one is in love yet, sorry about it. Gray feeling..things..**

 **I do not own Fairy Tail**

"Natsu, get up! Erza said to be at the train station by 8:00 and it's already 7:30!" Natsu felt something bouncing on his chest and groaned, turning onto his stomach and hoping it would go away so he could sleep a little longer. The fight from the day before had left him sore and aching all over, he didn't know if he could get up even if he wanted to.

"-o-ay-appya-inta-eep" Natsu mumbled into his pillow incoherently. The magical blue cat that had been jumping on his stomach was set off-kilter by the movement of the dragon slayer and fell off of the hammock the mage was sleeping on, growing little white wings before he could land on the floor. With a shout of protest he flew up and stood on Natsu's back with his paws on his hips, a flame of determination in his eyes and an annoyed frown on his blue face.

"Hey watch it, Natsu! What kind of best friend throws his partner off a bed! And I can't even tell what you're saying. Get up before Erza kills us!"

Natsu turned his head to the side, eyes still closed but brows furrowed together. "I said go away Happy I'm trying to sleep!" Natsu's tone was sharp. He groaned again before dramatically slamming his face back into the pillow. Happy flew away and Natsu sighed in relief at the disappearance of the added pressure on his already sore body. He began daydreaming about dragons and soaring with them when he was met with a rude awakening.

 _SPLASH!_

Natsu yelped and fell out of his hammock, landing on his back on the wooden floor. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPY?!" Natsu jumped up and let out a battle cry before chasing the flying cat through the house. Happy looked back at the enraged dragon slayer in a panic and flew to the front door, trying to open it, but the poor blue cat was snatched from behind and dragged toward the bathroom. Happy let out a desperate yelp and started crying and begging for forgiveness.

"I didn't mean it Natsu, I swear! I just wanted to avoid Erza's angry face! Where are you taking me?!" Natsu opened the door of the bathroom, blue fuzzy friend in tow, and turned the shower on.

"NO NOT THE SHOWER! Please Natsu I'll do anything! I HATE showers!" Happy clawed at Natsu's hands but the fire mage ignored him and raised his little friend up in front of his face. He had a huge but evil smile on his face that sent a shudder throughout the blue cat's small body.

 _Scary!_

"Hehe this is what you get for waking me up little buddy!" Natsu shoved Happy under the water and the cat frantically struggled, trying in vain to escape. After he was thoroughly soaked, Natsu pulled Happy out from under the water and set him on the sink to his left, throwing a small red towel over the shivering cat's head.

"You're a meanie Natsu!" the cat accused, voice muffled by the towel on his head. He took the towel off and started drying himself, grumbling about terrible best friends and being late.

Natsu had walked to the kitchen and glanced at the time, noticing that it was now 7:45. He went to cook some food, pulling eggs and some bacon out of the large white fridge and placing it on the small counter space next to the stove. As he was whisking the eggs and heating up a pan, his mind wandered to the events of the day before.

 _Natsu stood beside Gray while he asked for Levy's help searching for information on demon slaying magic._

" _Sure Gray! I'd love to help you look in the Library of Sorcery, I've been aching to go back there since our last visit! I just haven't really had a good reason to go… And Gajeel can come help too!" The blue haired mage looked hopefully at the dark, heavily pierced mage beside her._

" _Huh?! Why would I want to help this loser?! It's his fault that he can't control his own magic, that's not my problem!" The iron dragon slayer turned his head away stubbornly and Levy looked dejected._

" _Oh ok fine, I'll just go without you…" Gajeel opened one eye and looked at his companion, a guilty look passing over his face._

" _Fine, I'll go!" he said, glaring down at the table they were sitting at. "But only to watch your guys' backs, I hate reading and someone should keep a lookout!" Levy's eyes lit up and she clapped her hands together. Natsu smirked, inwardly amused at how Levy had his fellow dragon slayer wrapped around her little finger._

" _So when are we going?" Levy inquired, excited to get to explore all the knowledge of the giant library. Gray opened his mouth to speak when he was interrupted by the clanking of armor coming toward them._

" _We leave at eight o'clock sharp tomorrow morning" the scarlet haired requip mage said sternly before training her sharp eyes on Natsu, "and you better not be late." Natsu gave a quick salute._

" _Aye sir!" the fire mage agreed. Ezra nodded in satisfaction and turned toward Gray. "You better go to Lucy's house now and find out if she's willing to go as well, though I'm sure the idea of a distraction will be welcome after the horrors we all went through with Tartaros." Gray nodded and thanked Levy for offering her assistance with research. The two rivals then turned to walk to the door of the guild when it suddenly slammed open. There were a few shouts of surprise and a flash of blue before something landed on Natsu's chest with a force that knocked the fire mage back a few steps. Natsu looked down in shock before smiling fondly at the blue puffball clutching his vest._

" _Happy!" he addressed the blue exceed who looked up with tears in his eyes._

" _Natsu! I'm so sorry I wasn't here! I was hanging out with Carla and Pantherlily at Wendy's house when Wendy arrived and told me you were hurt and the infirmary! Are you ok?!" Natsu pet the cat's head to calm him and gave him a wide grin._

" _Yep I'm doing just fine, don't worry about me little guy! This Ice Princess could never take ME down!" Gray let out a snort in protest next to him but stayed silent, letting the two have their moment._

" _I was so worried when I heard! I'm glad you're ok though." Natsu was caught in surprise when Happy looked at him with a stern expression and reached to lightly smack the top of the mage's head. "That's what you get for fighting all the time, Natsu! I'm surprised you're not dead yet!"_

 _Natsu huffed in indignation, "Hey! Fighting is fun, and I rarely get hurt that bad! The Ice Bastard was just lucky this time, that's all!" Happy looked at him with eyes narrowed, not believing his best friend for a second._

" _You two are worse than an old married couple! I don't get why you can't get along!" The fire mage looked at his blue friend in disbelief._

" _I could never get along with someone who strips all the time and is so damn cold!"_

" _Well-"_

" _Hey" Gray interrupted, restraining himself from punching his rival for all the insults he was throwing. "I hate to interrupt your special moment but I gotta get to Lucy's and I'm leaving now. You can come or not, I don't care," he said casually turning around and waving over his shoulder. Natsu looked at the ice mage, his conversation with Happy already forgotten._

" _Alright Happy c'mon, we're going to Lucy's!"_

" _Aye Sir!"_

Natsu threw the bacon and eggs onto two plates for him and his roommate. "Happy! Food's ready!" Happy zoomed into the kitchen eager to eat, putting aside his anger at Natsu for getting him wet. Natsu's eyes passed the clock once more and landed on his plate of food. He froze. Slowly turning his head back toward the clock, his eyes went wide.

7:59

…"OH SHIT!" Natsu jumped up and shovelled food into his mouth, telling Happy in between bites to hurry up as well. In five seconds flat both had eaten their meals and were running out the door, Natsu's hair a mess and only wearing a pair of baggy black pants. Thankfully he kept a bag full of clothes and supplies ready next to his bed at all times for instances just like this one. He put Happy on his head and told him to hold on tight before igniting his fire boosters and running as fast as possible toward the train station.

...

Gray saw a dust cloud in the distance coming closer and spotted a flash of red flame. _That must be Natsu. What an idiot._ He shook his head and glanced at Erza who was looking intently at a golden pocket watch. Her brow furrowed more with each passing second, to the point where her eyebrows were practically touching each other. Suddenly she snapped the pocket watch closed with a click and glared at the incoming dust storm. Natsu arrived mere seconds later, running faster than anyone he had ever seen him run before. His eyes were hopeful yet scared when he stopped in front of them, trying to gage Erza's mood and backing away from her when he saw that her fists were clenched and her scarlet hair was covering her face.

"You're late." Ezra's voice was calm and stern. Natsu gulped. Happy, still on Natsu's head, sensed a confrontation and cautiously flew off Natsu and over to Lucy who was talking to Levy a few feet away.

"Listen Erza it's only a minute, what's the big deal?" he asked hesitantly, not wanting to upset her any further but also not understanding why she was so upset over one minute. Suddenly she began to glow and Natsu panicked, running behind Gray in an attempt to shield himself from her inevitable wrath. Gray startled and shoved Natsu, not wanting Erza's anger transferred to him instead.

"Oi, Flame Brain! Don't bring me into this!" Gray pushed him away roughly as he kept running behind him.

Erza requipped into her purgatory armor and laughed a dark, evil laugh, her face still hidden. Both boys immediately froze, scared to death. "What's the big deal?" She raised her head slowly and talked with quiet venom, a terrifying hard look in her eyes. "The big deal is that I told you eight. And you show yourself at eight o'one. How dare you break my trust and rush our schedule like this. Everything I plan is exact with no room for error. THERE WILL BE JUDGEMENT!" Erza rushed at Natsu and Gray lept out of the way. Natsu tried to run but Erza caught up effortlessly and appeared in front of him, punching him in the stomach with her black gloved fist. Natsu went flying into a nearby ticket station and left a huge dent in the wall, falling onto his face unconscious.

Erza nodded in satisfaction and changed back into her usual grey armor and blue skirt. "Gray pick up Natsu, the train has just arrived and we need to go." Gray groaned but knew better than to protest, jogging over to the Flame Idiot and hoisting him on his shoulders in the same manner as yesterday. _Man, do I really have to carry Natsu_ again _?! He's so freaking heavy. And why the hell isn't he wearing a shirt? I thought I was the only stripper around.. His skin is so unnaturally warm.._ Gray couldn't help but admit that it actually felt kind of nice and comforting, like sitting by a fire on a cold winter day. Gray may be conditioned and used to the cold but it didn't mean he hated being warm. Gray could also feel the taut abdominal muscles on his rival pressing against his shoulder blades. _Ok so maybe his weight isn't ALL from food.._ He only half registered Lucy telling Erza that she may have overdone it on Natsu's punishment but considering he was only going to get motion sickness on the train anyway, Gray figured it didn't really matter. It _was_ annoying after all that Natsu showed up late to almost every quest the team went on. The team boarded the train and squished into pairs of seats, all of them facing the front of the train. The seats were off white and run down and looked _very_ uncomfortable. Gray frowned as he saw that Erza and Lucy as well as Gajeel and Levy had already paired up with each other and taken their seats. Happy was nodding off sitting in Lucy's lap.

 _Are you kidding me?! I have to sit with this idiot the whole train ride! It's ten hours long and even the hardest punch couldn't keep him out that long.._ Gray made his way to the seat behind Gajeel and Levy and set the fire dragon slayer down in the window seat before plopping down into his own. Natsu's head was back against the top of the seat and his mouth was opened wide, drooling a little. Gray watched him with his eyebrow raised, crossing his arms indignantly. _Disgusting. The world must hate me to keep making me take care of this idiot. I would rather sit by anybody else! Except maybe Erza, she seems a bit testy this morning and I don't want to die…_ The train started moving and the team mentally prepared themselves for ten long hours of train ride.

After about an hour of staring past Natsu out the window, Gray felt incredibly bored and decided to eavesdrop on Levy and Gajeel, who were whispering in front of him. He quietly scooted to the edge of his seat and brought his head to the back of their seat. His eyes widened in surprise when he heard Levy chastising the iron dragon slayer.

"-n't understand why you pick on them so much, they're just protective of me!" she hissed angrily, keeping her voice low, "besides you know I'm yours anyway, stop being jealous all the time."

"Tch, still," Gajeel grumbled, "I don't like 'em. Why don't you just tell them we're together so they'll leave me the fuck alone!"

Gray heard a pause and decided to scoot back to his seat, realizing he had heard a conversation that could confirm everyone's suspicions. _So Levy and Gajeel_ are _together! I knew it! Well I'm pretty sure everyone knows it, they're painfully obvious.. I wonder why they haven't told anyone? I mean Mira would be ecstatic to know one of her ships got together.. But then again maybe that's why. I wouldn't want Mira talking about how cute I was with someone, or anyone else getting in my business. Those two are pretty introverted so I can understand keeping a secret like that._ Gray was lost in thought, trying to guess when exactly this relationship development had occurred.

After a couple hours to his thoughts, the train suddenly hit a bump or something because the car jerked violently, sending some people out of their seats. Gray braced himself and stayed seated but the dragon slayer next to him was jerked to the side and fell over onto Gray's lap. The ice mage was about to push him back up but paused and decided against it. He remembered how Natsu had been petting his hair yesterday and placed a hesitant hand on the dragon slayer's head. He ran his fingers through the pink hair in his lap and tilted his head, surprised. _His hair is a lot thicker than my own, I guess that's why it sticks up so much.. But it's still soft too.._

Natsu let out a quiet sigh and Gray stopped his hand, startled and slightly disturbed by what he was doing to his head. As soon as the motion stopped however, Natsu growled in his sleep and Gray raised an amused eyebrow. He began petting him again and Natsu let out another contented sigh. Gray snorted. _This idiot is like a puppy, what the heck?! Then again I_ do _remember it feeling really good, so I guess I can't really blame him. Still this is kinda out of character for us, and I don't feel like punching him for once, what's going on?_ Gray blushed slightly, knowing this was more the kind of thing couples do, not rivals whose only touches were punches to the gut. It felt weird but not really bad so Gray continued. _Things don't feel exactly the same after that fight yesterday, we've had more civil conversation in two days than we've had in our entire lifetime.. Who knows, maybe things will be different now. Or maybe all of this is just cuz I feel guilty about how everything went yesterday.. On the flip side though, maybe we'll actually be friends from now on, I kinda like having decent conversations with this idiot.._ Gray pondered that thought, wondering what it would be like to be friends with him rather than rivals. Of course he knew they were friends already, but it was a deep friendship that ran beneath the surface and didn't really show itself outside of life or death situations. He knew they would both risk their lives for each other and had already saved each other countless times before..

Natsu groaned and stirred in his lap and Gray feared the worst, knowing the fire mage was bound to get sick and puke somewhere as soon as he got up. _H_ _opefully not on me.._ Natsu's eyelids fluttered open and Gray moved his hand, ready to push the dragon slayer away in order to avoid meeting his rival's partly digested breakfast. He grabbed Natsu's shoulders and pushed,

Natsu turning greener by the second.

"W-Wait," the sick mage muttered weakly. Gray paused, surprised since usually he couldn't talk at all when he was motion sick. "D-do it some m-more."

"What? Do what?" The ice mage was confused but put the dragon slayer back on his lap. Natsu weakly brought his hand up to his head and pat his head once before dropping his arm back to his side. Gray stared for a moment in shock and put his hand back on Natsu's head before continuing to massage his head. Gray blinked as Natsu's face became slightly less green and he sighed like he had in his sleep earlier. Natsu turned his body to lie on his side, face toward Gray's stomach. It seemed like the pink haired boy was-

"Natsu are you _smelling_ me?!" Gray was perplexed and more than a little weirded out by his rival's behavior but Natsu was oblivious and trying too hard to keep the sickness at bay to answer. He continued to lay on Gray, face coloration almost back to normal when the ice mage felt something warm touch his stomach. He stiffened, eyes wide, before violently shoving Natsu off of him, not caring about the fire mage's motion sickness any longer.

"WHAT THE HELL!? Did you just _lick_ me?!" the ice mage yelled vehemently. Natsu groaned in protest and tried to re-attach himself to Gray, the ice mage using his hands to keep him at arm's length.

Natsu flinched and attempted to explain, fighting again with the desire to throw up, "Y-you j-just smell s-s-so nice and minty and I-I wanted t-to see if you t-tasted minty too…" Natsu stammered weakly, covering his mouth to try and attempting to keep the sickness at bay.. "Y-you don't b-by the way." Gray just stared at him, to shocked to do anything before conceding. _I mean I_ have _heard that people will use mint elixirs and candies to help lessen sickness and headaches.. Still what a dumbass, you don't just go around licking people! It is Natsu though and he's just an idiot so I really shouldn't be that surprised.._ Natsu had given up and slumped over onto Gray's hands, to weak to function anymore. Gray rolled his eyes at the boy's pitiful state and guided Natsu back to his lap, still weirded out but the feeling was overridden by guilt over the events of the day before and pity for the pink haired idiot. Natsu contentedly went back to breathing in his rival's minty scent and closed his eyed. Gray went back to petting his head and made Natsu promise not to lick him again.

"I won't..you don't..even taste like mint...anyway.." Natsu mumbled, falling asleep. "..still.. taste… kinda good..though…" The dragon slayer fell back asleep and Gray tried to ignore the weird feeling he was getting. The breath on his stomach kind of tickled in a pleasant way and his mind wandered again.

 _Stupid Flame Brain.. Going around licking people and saying they taste good, who the hell does that?!_ Still, Gray couldn't deny that the lick had been administered to a very sensitive spot on his stomach and felt kind of good, no matter how strange it was. He wasn't sure if he really minded, and that thought alone was terrifying. Trying desperately not to think about the dragon slayer in his lap, Gray started to drift off to sleep as well, noting that they still had about six hours left.

However Gray couldn't get the tingling feeling and the image of Natsu's tongue on his body out of his head..

 _Fuck, this is bad…_ And with that final thought his head rolled back and Gray joined his rival in peaceful slumber, hand still tangled in pink hair.


	6. The Library

**I might write another chapter today, might not. who knows.**

 **I don't own Fairy Tail**

The library of sorcery was a huge spiral structure, about twenty stories high. The Fairy Tail mages after a long train ride and a day of walking through an uninhabited forest finally arrived at the entrance to the library and stood in awe of its grandeur. Erza however was harboring an extremely pale complexion as she stared at its entrance. She was fighting with the desire to run and hide in light of what had previously happened at this tower while the Fairy Tail had attempted to gather pieces of the Infinity Clock. This was the same library at which she, Wendy and Carla had been forced to fend off the Butt Jiggle Gang. Lucy, Levy and Happy had also visited the library before but had less disturbing memories. If anything, Lucy was happy to look upon the library and remember how she had saved her spirits after her last visit there.

Gray was impressed with the library and tried to count exactly how many stories high it was but the tower extended into the clouds and it was impossible to tell. Awe was soon replaced by concern, however, as he realized just how daunting this task would be. _Hopefully this library was alphebetized or has clear sections, or else we could be in there for weeks…_ Gray was lost in thought but snapped out of it when Natsu gave a sharp shout.

"Hey are we gonna go in or what?! It's just a library, why do you guys keep staring at it like that?" Natsu walked up to the large circular door, which had one large center circle and three other circles outside connected by large golden colored wires. Natsu pushed the door to the side and it easily opened up as the group moved in closer. Though the exterior was impressive, the interior was even more impressive, with lines of books everywhere in sight. Natsu barely spared a glance to his surroundings and walked to the center of the room, looking at his comrades expectantly. The rest of the group circled around and Erza, being Erza, began to give direction on how to accomplish their task.

"Okay first thing's first" the scarlet haired mage began, "we need to find novels on Devil Slaying Magic. Chances are the library will be split by subject or magic type, so find a section either labelled with devil, demon, slayer, ancient magics etcetera. Since there are about twenty levels, each one of us will take three levels to start with, so Happy, you fly and take everyone to their respective levels. I will start on the ground level here." Erza pointed at the ground beneath her before directing her gaze to Lucy. "Lucy you take the fourth through sixth level, Gray you take seventh through tenth, Nastu eleventh through thirteenth, Gajeel fourteenth through sixteenth and Levy, you take the rest. I'm sure with your superior knowledge finding abilities, you can go through each section in half the time." All the mages nodded their affirmation to their assignments and Happy went to work taking mages up. He took Levy up first and Gajeel next, placing them both on the fourteenth level since they had decided to work together. Natsu, Gray and Lucy started walking up the stairs since they weren't as far away from their levels and had made it to the third level by the time Happy came back. He flew Natsu to his level and then Gray, before flying back to stay with Lucy who had arrived on the fourth level and started her search already.

Gray walked in a slow circle, taking in the huge array of books on the first of his levels and sighed before going to the nearest bookcase. The sections were labelled in an ancient unknown language and he growled in frustration. Thankfully, the books themselves were in many languages, including his own which he began to read. His eyes scanned over the shelf. _Tea Leaves and Magical Properties_ _,_ _Magical Flowers_ _,_ _Magical Burn Healing 101_ … _ok well obviously this is not what I'm looking for, though a magical burn book might be handy with that pyro around…_ He continued to peruse the isles but it appeared that the entire level was in some way tied to botany and magical properties in plant life. Gray finished his first level and moved up the stairs to the next. Every step was loud and echoed in the vast library. It was somewhat ominous and eerie how quiet it was, he could even hear Erza's clanking armour echoing from many floors below him.

Gray got to the next level and began perusing the shelves once again, noticing that this section was much more interesting. His gaze landed on a particular red colored book slightly higher than eye level on the middle of a shelf. _Fire Dragon, King of the Dragons_ _oh I bet Natsu would love this, I wonder if it makes any reference to Igneel.._ He picked it off the shelf and wrapped it in the shirt he hadn't noticed he had taken off, wondering if he should call Natsu down even though this was not the section they were looking for. By looking around the level, it seemed that half of the books were about all kinds of dragons. Not dragon slayers, Gray noted with disappointment, but just dragons. Gray decided against calling Natsu, knowing that any distraction would just make their research go by even slower and they had already been there a few hours. Instead Gray examined the other half of the level, which seemed dedicated to other magical creatures from what he could tell. Most of them he hadn't even heard of, and were probably long extinct. He sighed, miffed that no one had shouted that they had found anything yet, and made his way up the stairs to his last level. He walked to the nearest shelf on his left and began reading titles once again. This level he couldn't even understand, as it seemed all scientific-based. _Alchemic Processes and Molecular Make-Up_ _,_ _Alkaline Mixtures and Chemical Reactions_ … _Yeah this is definitely not what we're lo-_

"Hey guys I think I found something!" Levy's voice echoed loudly in the large cylindrical structure and the mages each gave shouts of relief and raced up the stairs to get to whichever level she was on. Gray tucked the book bundle tightly under his arm and ran up the stairs making it to level thirteen before he noticed a bushel of pink hair peeking out from behind a shelf across from the stairwell. He ran over to it and groaned in frustration as the fire mage that was snoring on the ground, book over his face. Gray picked up the book which seemed to be about magical fireworks and grabbed Natsu by the collar, hoisting the fire mage up and throwing him toward the stairs.

The dragon slayer woke up in midair and and had a moment of panicked flailing around before crashing painfully against the bannister of the stairwell. He blinked a couple times, head and back aching from his impact, before jumping up and pointing accusingly at his rival.

"WHAT THE HELL ICE PRINCESS!? YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO THROW ME TO WAKE ME UP, JUST TAP ME OR SOMETHING LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!" Gray crossed his arms, shirt-wrapped book against his chest, and raised an eyebrow, not saying anything. Natsu kept pointing, the two locked in a silent showdown.

...

...

...

The silence stretched until Natsu slowly lowered his arm and huffed indignantly, turning his back to Gray and muttering "ok so maybe I'm a little hard to wake up…"

Gray snorted, put his arms down and walked to the stairs, passing Natsu. "A little hard to wake up? Try practically impossible. Now come on, Levy's found something and I wanna get this over as soon as possible." Gray resumed climbing the steps and was surprised to hear Natsu silently do the same.

Six floors and some sore calves later, Gray could finally see the figures of his friends gathered in the center of the room of the nineteenth floor, Levy standing in the middle shifting from one foot to another in anticipation and excitement and wearing her Gale-Force reading glasses. He also noted that Erza and Lucy were already there even though they had been floors below them but Gray figured that Happy must have flown Lucy up and Erza was just...Erza.

"Gray! Natsu! There you guys are! Now that we're all here, I think this is the section!" Levy waved to the large floor around her, one that was even more packed with books than the others, despite the room being slightly smaller in area. "This whole room is filled with Slayer magic! I don't know yet where exactly the Devil Slayer section is but I did see some books on Dragon Slayer and God Slayer magic. We should examine this room. The team, with a renewed sense of vigor split up and began to search the shelves for demon slaying magic. Gray examined the shelves on the right side of the room, close to the staircase and was disheartened to find that most of these books were in an ancient runic language. After what seemed like hours of fruitless searching, his eye was caught by a navy blue book that had an interesting black design on the cover. He held his right arm next to it and smirked. _Gotcha!_ The mark on the book was identical to that on his right arm, the one he had received after inheriting his Devil Slaying magic. He hastily pulled the book off the shelf and opened it, only to discover the book was written in that old language as well.

"Hey Levy, can I get some help with translating this?!" he called over his shoulder. Levy walked briskly to his side and he held the book out to her, letting her take it. She opened it up to the first page and smiled widely.

"I think this might just be what we're looking for!" She waved at Gray to follow her and called the others to the middle of the room, where they all sat down together and gathered around the Solid Script mage. "This is a book about Devil Slaying magic! It appears to be specific to the ice form as well. It's written in ancient runes but I have the language inlaid in my glasses so I can read it. Here I'll read the introduction.. 'Devil Slaying Magic is a dangerous and somewhat dark form of power, a form of magic that imitates demon curse power and uses a combination of light and dark magic to fulfill its ultimate purpose of destroying demons. While a magic created for good intentions, it is a dangerous and destructive magic as well. This book, focussing on Ice Devil Slayer magic, outlines the effects on both caster and victim of this form of magic, as well as the attacks an Ice Devil Slayer can use and how to pass the power from mage to mage.'" Levy flipped to the table of contents and began reading the chapter titles. "'Origins of Ice Devil Slayer Magic, Attacks, Gathering Power, Ice Immunity, Effects of the Magic on the Caster…' ah here we go! 'Effects of Devil Slaying Magic on Human Victims'!"

Gray realized his fists were clenched and his head was pounding. He felt wary of his magic suddenly and realized that there was a lot more attached to it than just extra power. He would have to take this book and read the rest of it as soon as he could, especially with that effects on the caster chapter, that didn't sound like a good thing. He sat tensed as Levy frowned and started reading again. "It says here that Devil Slayer's magic is the same in effect as other magics, I don't get it… 'Ice Devil Slayer magic acts similarly to other forms of ice magic, only on a stronger level. To demons, the ice is potent, but to humans it is dangerous but not any more dangerous than other magic. The Ice Devil Slayer does, however have the ability to turn anything to a nearly unmeltable ice (see chapter 2) and can create an array of fatal weapons to fight their opponent with…' Well it looks like it just keeps going on like this, talking about how effective the ice magic can be in a fight." The blue haired mage flipped a few pages and bit her lip, eyebrows furrowed. "Although…"

"What is it?" Gray inquired. He didn't like the confused look on Levy's face and knew whatever she was going to say was going to raise more questions than they had originally came with.

"Well.." Levy read a few lines and then backtracked to read aloud. "It says here, 'Devil Slayer magic is potent when in contact with demons. Though there haven't been many recorded fights between a Devil Slayer and a demon, it is said that when in contact with a demon, the ice, or other element dependent on the Devil Slayer, will on contact with the demon, poison the demon's body. Reports say this can include growing burns, deepening wounds, or intensified bleeding. When in human form, the demon's true form can be revealed by contact with Devil Slayer's magic. Their blood returns to it's true color and the body is forced to transform.." Levy trailed off and met eyes with Gray, Erza, Gajeel and Lucy before each of them looked at the fire dragon slayer. Said mage had once again fallen asleep, somehow sitting up, and was drooling with his head tilted to the side. His blue furry companion was sitting in his lap, also asleep.

It was Erza who broke the silence. "So maybe Natsu is a demon? I mean it's a little farfetched but-"

Gray let out a short laugh and looked back at the others. "Oh please. Unless there's a demon of eating food, Flame Brain is definitely not one, we've known him since forever. I mean just look at that!" He pointed at the sleeping mage and everyone nodded their heads, agreeing that it was the most bizarre idea they had ever had. They all started laughing and stood up. Natsu woke up at the commotion and blinked up at the scene around him, confused.

"What's going on? Why are you guys all laughing?" Natsu frowned as the laughing intensified.

"Can you imagine?!" Lucy wiped her teared up eyes and struggled to get words out through her violent gasps of laughter. "Natsu as a demon?!"

Natsu just watched confused as the others continued their amusement without him and stood up.

Gray was laughing as well but internally felt something prickling in the back of his mind telling him that something bad was happening. He was annoyed that he had no idea what was going on, there were pieces of this that didn't add up. Gray told the others that they should keep searching, maybe this was a faulty book, and in the end the group walked down the steps after a couple more hours with two more books in hand, the only ones they could find written about Devil Slaying magic. At the bottom floor of the library, they decided to camp out inside, seeing that it was dark outside and they had nowhere else to go. The group set up sleeping bags on the floor and went to sleep, the library going dark as if it had known there were occupants sleeping in it.

Gray lay awake on his back, listening to the quiet breaths of the others as they slept. Thoughts were tormenting his mind and the ominous feeling in the back of his head had refused to leave. He glanced at Natsu's sleeping form to his left and gazed back up at the ceiling high above them. The ice mage desperately wanted to know what had happened on that day, but it seemed like the answer was too far out of reach. He was relieved, however, that at least the magic wasn't supposed to have any effect on humans other than normal magic wounds. But that didn't explain Natsu's gushing black ooze, the veins on his body protruding and turning purple.. ' _Their blood returns to its true color'..._ Gray remembered the fight with the Tartaros demons. The blood had been.. _Black.. But I don't understand, that can't mean.. No this is crazy. I must have done something wrong, I must have incorrectly cast the spell or something, Natsu can't be…_

Gray fell asleep, attempting to shield his mind from nonsensical and dangerous thoughts..


	7. Attack from the Forest

**I don't own Fairy Tail**

The next morning the Fairy Tail mages packed up their belongings and got ready to leave the Library of Sorcery. Somehow the structure's lights had turned back on early in the morning. Though strange, the team didn't question it. Gray filed behind the others as they made their way outside the library, the Devil Slaying book in his hands while the rest laid stacked in his pack. Gray looked through the pages curiously, despite not being able to read it. As soon as he walked back through the big entrance he noticed a faint glow coming off the book from the front page. Turning to it he saw that a date had been inscribed into the book, exactly a month from their current date. _This must be the due date_ Gray thought, smirking. _How strange.. but considering the books are magically connected to this place and the lights apparently know when you're there, I probably should make sure I don't turn this in late…_

"Woah why's it glowing like that?" Natsu asked, hands behind his head and glancing at the book in Gray's hands. The ice mage blinked at his rival, surprised that he was addressing him civilly, or even at all. No one had really spoken to each other so far that morning and it felt strange to have the silence broken. He studied Natsu, not having registered his question, and took in his features. They were in a forest but the light shined through the trees, making the fire mage's skin glow and the light reflect off of his bright pink hair. His dark green eyes glinted with curiosity and Gray felt himself drawn into them. Natsu shifted his gaze from the book in Gray's hands to the ice mage's own eyes and Gray felt as if he was drowning in an ocean of green. His heart rate began to speed up and he felt detached from his body, mind going completely blank and the world around him blinking out of existence. A sharp tap on the forehead however, brought him back to the present.

Gray blinked again, not really sure what was happening to him, but finally seeing Natsu's raised eyebrow and the long finger poking him repeatedly in the forehead.

"You alright there, Popsicle?" Natsu asked, amused but somewhat concerned. Gray recovered and rolled his eyes, frowning.

"Of course I'm okay, idiot. Anyway what was your question?" Gray pretended that nothing had happened and tried to calm his unreasonably quick heart rate.

"I asked why the book was glowing," Natsu replied, still looking at the ice mage curiously but deciding to drop the issue for now. Gray shifted his gaze back to the book in his hands.

"Oh" he said lamely. "Well it's just a due date. Looks like we will have to come back here in a month or who knows what is going to happen?" Natsu immediately paled and gave his rival a panicked look.

"You mean I have to spend another twenty hours on that moving metal death trap?!" Natsu exclaimed, looking like he was about to throw up. Gray rolled his eyes again and playfully hit Natsu in the head with the book in his hand.

"You know you don't have to come, Flame Brain. You didn't even have to come this time! If you hate trains so much then just stay home." Gray said in an annoyed tone. He and Natsu were walking through the forest behind the others. Every few minutes, Erza would turn her head to them and gave a look of mild surprise when she found them talking civilly and not fighting with each other. Gray noticed her behavior and huffed indignantly at her lack of trust in him. He didn't _always_ fight with Natsu, they could get along if they really wanted to… _I think.. Actually now that I think about it, we really do never get along, this whole 'real conversation' thing is kinda weirding me out.._

"Yeah but I had to, I wanted to know why your lame magic hurt me so bad just as much as you did. And it wasn't so bad really.." Natsu smiled gently and looked at Gray with an intense stare, still walking beside him. "It felt really nice, that thing you did with my hair." Gray's face flushed pink and quickly looked away, not really sure what to say. Thankfully he didn't have to as Natsu ignored his blush and smiled his wide toothy smile. "So just do that again every time and I'll be okay!"

Gray's head snapped back toward Natsu, his eyes wide. He spluttered incredulously, "W-What?!" Natsu just ignored him and hummed happily before continuing his thoughts.

"Anyway did you guys ever figure out what was wrong with your magic?" Gray stared at his idiot rival for a second, having a hard time keeping up with his subject changes and the strange array of emotions they were making him feel.

"Well" Gray finally said with a sigh, "unless you're a demon of some kind, no we didn't figure it out. There shouldn't have been any weird side effects. My guess is that it has something to do with my inexperience with the magic, maybe I did something wrong.." Gray looked at the book still in his hands and clutched it tight, frustrated that he had hurt someone because of his stupid new magic. Frost started to coat the book, and Gray briefly wondered if he could just throw both it and his magic away and forget about the whole ordeal. Suddenly he felt a warm hand on his shoulder and he lifted his head to meet the intense gaze of the Dragon Slayer.

"Maybe you did, maybe you didn't" Natsu said seriously, and playful tones to his voice now absent. "Whatever it is, we'll figure it out. You have a job to do with that magic so you can't just get rid of it." Gray's eyes widened. It seemed like Natsu had just read his mind. Then again they had known each other since they were small kids so it really shouldn't have been all that shocking. "Besides," Natsu continued, "maybe I am some super cool fire dragon demon, then I would have two types a magic anyway and there's no way your sorry ass could beat me!"

Gray immediately fell into his habit of rivalry and shouted, "What are you talking about Flame Brain!? You only wish you could have two types of magic! Demon my ass! You couldn't be strong enough to be a demon even if your magic was unlimited!" Gray tossed the book in his pack and took a fighting stance, his hands beginning to frost over.

"You kidding Ice Bastard?! I can beat you without any magic at all!" Natsu shouted back, flames igniting into fists, ready to attack his rival.

"I wish you _were_ a demon just so that I could have a good reason to kill you!" Gray created ice lances to throw at Natsu.

"I don't know about me but looking at your ugly face is a reason enough to kill _you_!" Natsu drew his fist back ready to run at Gray

"NATSU! GRAY! What are you two doing!?" In slow motion the two boys' heads turned toward the scarlet haired requip mage who had interrupted their fight. She stood in front of them, hands on hips and giving the boys a death glare. Her armor glinted in the sunlight and her very aura seemed radiant and dark at the same time. The boys simultaneously acted on their fear and were suddenly next to each other in a tight side hug.

"Oh nothing Erza, just being the best of friends back here!" Natsu said quickly. Gray nodded fiercely in affirmation. Erza gave them a piercing look and nodded her approval.

"Good" the scarlet mage said, turning back around to catch up with the others and lead the group through the forest. "It better stay that way. Or else.." Gray gulped, hearing Natsu do the same before he roughly pushed himself away from his rival. The two continued walking behind the others, Gray keeping his eyes firmly locked on Erza's armor-clad back.

 _Something really weird has been going on lately.. Our recent battle with demons and my growing power with Demon Slaying magic and the whole Natsu problem are in some way connected, I can feel it._ Grays mind flashed to images of Natsu on the train and the weird feelings he had been experiencing over the past couple of days. _I especially can't afford to be thinking of_ that _crap right now. I'm not sure I even want to know what's going on, and it's not important anyway. He probably has just been smelling more disgusting than usual, that's why my stomach keeps turning. Yeah that's it. I bet he hasn't bathed in days, stupid unhygienic dragon slayer._ Gray pressed into his closed eyes with his hands and sighed exasperatedly. _This is dumb. I have so many more important things to think about. Maybe I should take a long mission when we get back to figure out my magic. I know gramps said not to use it, but this research seems like a waste of time and maybe I just haven't practiced enough. Practice makes perfect after all, and maybe with enough of it I can figure out what went wrong.._ Gray thought about the possible missions he could take while the team continued to walk _._ The group overall seemed disheartened by the lack of helpful results in their search, though Lucy and Levy had found some other books they were eager to dive into. The two chatted quietly at the front of the group but the rest walked in solemn silence, not looking forward to the train ride ahead of them.

The woods around the group, however, were filled with vibrancy and life. Contrary to their mood, the birds chirped happily in the canopy above them and the light breeze in the air ruffled the bright green leaves of trees surrounding them. The trees were thick, but light reflected from dew that had collected over the night, causing glints of sunshine from all directions.

The mages continued walking through the forest and were about one mile from the train station when Erza stopped and held up a hand, gesturing for the group to halt. Her eyes scanned the forest as the others looked at her in confusion.

"Uh Erza.." Lucy asked, "Why'd we stop?"

Natsu looked at the red-haired mage in annoyance. "Hey Erza, what the hell?! I just wanna get back home alrea-"

"Shhhh!" The Requip mage interrupted, "Listen!" All the members in the group strained their ears to hear anything out of the miss.

"I hate to break it to ya, redhead" came the gravelly voice of Gajeel, "but I got superior dragon senses and I ain't hearing a thing." The others nodded in affirmation and Erza simply glared at them.

"Exactly."

Quiet fell over the group as they realized their surroundings were not just quiet, they were eerily silent. Not a sound could be heard.

Suddenly Erza heard a slight swish in the air from somewhere nearby and acted on pure instinct.

"Everybody down!"

The whole group, knowing better than to disobey any kind of order from Erza took to the forest floor and covered their heads. The whoosh grew louder until a small thunk could be heard in a nearby tree and a millisecond passed before the portion of the forest they were stuck in exploded in bright purple flame. The mages shielded themselves as best as they could from the onslaught of debris from their surroundings and stood up wearily as the explosion died down, still surrounded by purple flames. Each Fairy Tail wizard had their magic at the ready and scanned the trees where the attack seemed so come from. Natsu of course was the first to act and threw some of his own fire in that direction.

"Come out you bastard!" he yelled, "stop being a coward and come fight us!" Natsu's hands were flame-covered fists taut at his side and he balanced on the balls of his feet, ready to move at a second's notice. The fire all around them cast the forest in a smokey purplish haze and the team struggled to see through it to the foliage beyond. A dark form seemed to be materializing in the distance and slowly walked toward them. Natsu, getting impatient, threw a Fire Dragon's Roar at the figure but a purple shell of light shimmered around it and easily deflected the orange flame. The figure continued walking slowly toward them and the group kept their eyes trained on their attacker, making out nothing but the outline of a figure in a black cloak.

"What the-" Gajeel started. Another figure materialized behind the first, then another and another, until figures in dark cloaks littered the visible space around them. Natsu growled and fired another larger roar attack at them but they all seemed to be protected by the transparent purple barriers.

"They must have some kind of protection mage, I've seen Freed create barriers similar to this, they could be runic" Levy inferred, talking quietly to her teammates, "if we want to beat these guys, considering they have bad intentions, which seems likely, we need to take out the mage casting those protection barriers." The figures were fast approaching and the group stood on edge, ready to rush their opponents.

"Here's the plan," Erza said hastily while she requipped into her Heaven's Wheel armour, "Lucy and Levy you two go take out the one casting the barriers. Happy you go with. Gray and Natsu, you two take the wizards on the left, Gajeel and I will take the right. Try and figure out a way to put the purple flames out, and Natsu try not to use your fire too much, the more smoke in the forest, the harder it is to see."

"Aye Sir!" everyone shouted. The figures were coming in close and another explosion sounded off to their left.

"GO!" The red-haired mage yelled and everyone sprung into action, Lucy and Levy running around the cloaked figures in order to flank them and uncover the protection mage they were sure must have been nearby. Happy flew behind, attempting to search for the protection mage from the smoke-shrouded skies. Gray and Natsu rushed to their left and prepared to face off their enemies. Gray stood on the balls of his feet, hands poised to throw an ice attack. He watched with confusion and irritation as the cloaked figures continued to slowly advance.

 _We can't hit them, so I need to fire low-energy attacks until Levy and Lucy can take out the one protecting them. What a cheap way to fight anyway.. And who the hell are these guys?! Why are they walking so damn slow?!_ Gray tightened his fist and stared down the coming figures. "Hey Natsu, make sure to conserve your energy. We need to distract as many of these guys as we can to divert attention from Lucy and Levy but until those barriers drop we're just wasting energy."

Natsu nodded and smirked in reply. "I'm all fired up now," he said with a bright glint in his eye.

"Fire Dragon-"

"Ice Make-"

"ROAR!"

"Blizzard!"

The two mages worked in complete unison, firing on the mysterious figures ahead of them. The figures in response all rushed at once as the attacks were blocked by their magical shields. Hundreds of spikes came from all directions and Gray and Natsu barely managed to dodge them with only a few scratches. The spikes each burst into purple flame around them and the smoke in the air worsened.

…

Lucy ran through the forest alongside her best friend and the blue feline, dodging silver spikes that came from behind them. The trio was rapidly scanning for anything out of the ordinary as they searched the forest from the enemy lines.

"Lucy! Levy! Over there!" Happy shouted from above them. The two girls followed the line of his paw and spotted another cloaked figure, this time one who seemed to be hiding behind a tree trunk, watching the battle intently from afar. The figure turned around at the noise and stood up, taking off the hood of his cloak. The man standing in front of them had long sleek purple hair and dark grey eyes, and observed them with a smirk. He wore all black robes underneath his cloak and had a short silver sword attached to his hip.

"Ah what do we have here?" He asked with an amused tone, "A couple small girls and a flying cat. Ha! How adorable!" His arms crossed and he stood with nonchalance. "Don't bother trying to fight me. I can deflect any magic you cute little mages throw at me."

Lucy seethed, pulling out her keys. "Open, Gate of the Lion! LEO!" With a burst of golden light, the lion spirit appeared in front of her, standing feet apart and ready to fight. "Leo take this loser down! He's getting on my nerves!" Leo glanced back at his master and winked.

"As you say, my Princess." The lion spirit refixed his gaze on his opponent and charged forward. "REGULUS IMPACT!" His fist lit with yellow light as he prepared to hit. Within seconds there was a massive explosion of light and the three Fairy Tail members watching winced and looked away. When Lucy could see again she gasped in surprise. The purple haired mage was standing there the same, Loke's fist stopped by a shimmering purple barrier. Grey eyes met her brown ones and the man cocked an eyebrow.

"I told you it wouldn't work" he said with an air of arrogance, "Your spirits use magical energy. They can't touch me."

Lucy's glared at the man. "Fine then. We will just have to beat you with brute force!" Leo apologized for being unable to help and returned to the spirit world. Lucy pulled out her whip threateningly and the man sighed, pulling out his own sword and stood waiting.

"Levy, our magic isn't going to work against this guy, I'm not sure how effective your solid script magic will be, if at all," Lucy said to her companion.

"Solid Script, Sword!" The blue-haired mage shouted as the words materialized with a metallic glow. She took hold of the solidified word which was warped in a sword-like shape. "Well, there's only one way to find out!" Levy and Lucy simultaneously rushed forward the arrogant mage in front of them, Lucy thrusting her whip forward towards the man and Levy running with a yell to swing her word-sword at him. Lucy's whip was hit away by the man's sword and Levy was stopped by the barrier surrounding him. He quickly moved to swing his sword at the now vulnerable solid script mage and she screamed as she was thrown back by his attack, crashing into a tree behind Lucy.

"Levy!" Lucy started to run back to her friend.

"I'm fine Lucy! Your whip is the only thing that can seem to touch him! I'll try and find a way to help from back here!" Levy yelled back, slowly picking herself up and dusting herself off. Lucy hesitated but then nodded turning back to her attacker with a fiery glare.

"I won't let you hurt my friends!" She yelled, charging again. She drew her hand back as the purple haired mage did the same. She threw her whip forward and the protection wizard deflected it again, somewhat surprised by her ferocity. She continued throwing her weapon forward as the mage got closer. He deflected every attack of the whip and charged in close, slicing at her chest. Lucy ducked underneath the swing and kicked out, landing a hit to the other mage's knees. The purple haired mage was forced back and his eyes hardened as he prepared to charge again.

"What a pesky little girl," he said, clearly annoyed. "I'm done going easy on you, let's finish this." He stalked forward slowly.

CRACK! The purple haired mage stopped in confusion at the strange sound and looked around before a large structure moving in on him quickly took up his field of vision.

"What the-?!"

BOOOOM!

Lucy screeched and jumped away as a large tree came down on them, almost crushing her and filling the air with dust and leaves. She got up wide-eyed and looked around to see Levy jumping up and down excitedly next to a tree stump, a solid script "A-X-E" in the air next to her. Lucy whipped back around to where the protection mage had fallen and only saw some stray purple hair peeking out from underneath the massive tree trunk. Levy came running up beside her and examined the crushed mage as well.

"I can't believe that actually worked! What a dumb wizard!" She shouted happily. Levy and Lucy pushed the tree over, the mage underneath completely unconscious. The blue-haired girl summoned some rope with her magic and the two tightly tied their enemy to a nearby tree. Happy, who had been hiding out nearby, flew up behind them and congratulated the two girls.

"Way to go, guys! This guy's a real dummy!" he said in his high-pitched voice, laughing. Lucy looked at the blue exceed.

"Hey Happy you watch this creep while we help fight with the others," Lucy commanded.

"Aye, sir!"

…

"Natsu, this is useless! With these barriers none of our attack are going to hit and we're going to be suffocated by smoke!" Gray yelled, panicking at their situation. Though they were being consumed by smoke and fire, Gray strained to see his other comrades to their right. It seemed Gajeel was having a similar problem, his metal was also deflected.

"Gray! Natsu!" he heard Erza shout over the cackling fire, "Magic doesn't work! You have to use hand to hand!" He couldn't see her but he could hear clinks of metal, which he attributed to her attacks with a sword.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me," Gray grumbled to himself, taking in the dozens of figures around him, "this is gonna take forever.." Natsu with his superior hearing gave a challenging smile to the ice mage.

"I bet I can take out more than you can, Ice Princess!" the dragon slayer taunted. Gray's eyes narrowed and he smirked as well.

"Yeah right! You're on Flame Brain!"

The two mages rushed forward, fists and feet flying as they attacked the mysterious enemy figures. The cloaked beings would not be easily defeated, however, and fought back viciously. The cloaked beings got in some hits but were no match for the competing wizards and the Fairy Tail companions quickly took out many of them. Gray ducked under a kick and punched one of his enemies in the abdomen, making in fly backward and into a tree. He growled in frustration as a dozen more took his place. The mages were also struggling to dodge the obnoxious silver spikes that kept flying past them and exploding in purple flame. Gray kept pushing forward, fueled by an instinctual fear of the encroaching purple fire. The air was beginning to smell rancid, as thought the very earth were decomposing at a rapid rate around him.

"Hey Ice Princess!" he heard Natsu shout.

"What dumbass?! I don't-" Gray said breathlessly, ducking under a punch and kicking an enemy off of his feet, "-have time for pointless conversation!" He could hear the panting in Natsu's voice as well as they conversed.

"No need to be such an asshole. Magic's back on! Lucy must've kicked that protection mage's ass!" Gray saw an orange flame explode a few yard to his right and smiled.

"Now we're talking! Ice Make, Floor!" Gray turned the surrounding area into ice and made himself a blade of ice and some skates, skating around and slashing bad guys as they slipped on his magical flooring. He smirked as the number of enemies seemed to be diminishing and gracefully continued slashing his enemies until some started to regain their footing. Gray stopped and put his hands together.

"Ice Make- FUCK!" Gray's attack was cut short by a sharp pain in his shoulder. An explosion from the point of contact blew Gray backward and he yelped as his body crashed heavily into a tree trunk. Gray, vision hazy from the impact, attempted to stand, using the tree behind him to stabilize him. As his vision cleared, he realized he was surrounded by purple flames and steadied himself, preparing to jump over them and continue his fight. The ice mage ran forward and vaulted himself over the flames.

…

An ear-splitting scream invaded Natsu's ears and the dragon slayer froze.

"GRAY!" Natsu yelled and ran toward the scream, nothing on his mind except his clearly wounded companion. Natsu quickly disposed of every mage in his path and his eyes widened when he found his companion sitting in pain on the ground, purple flames crawling up his pant legs. Gray was panting and making strangled sounds of pain as he weakly attempted to cover his legs with dirt to put the fire out. Natsu ran to his side and immediately reached out to help the ice wizard when Gray shouted at him.

"Don't!" Gray exclaimed weakly. "The fire.. It's not.. Normal!" Natsu paused and examined the fire. His eyes widened when he saw the fire wasn't burning Gray, it was breaking down his skin, similar to acid eating him away. Natsu's eyes darkened as he grew furious at the enemies that dared hurt the ice mage. He felt an animalistic need to protect his friend and felt nothing but rage as his nails grew into talons, his teeth elongated and the pupils in his eyes expanded to make his eyes completely black. Gray looked at him in wide eyed fear but Natsu was too full of anger to notice. Natsu, out of pure instinct, blew his own flame onto Gray and Gray yelped before watching in disbelief as the orange flame engulfed the purple and soothed the pain in his injured legs. Natsu stood up and snarled at the attackers around him, before taking off in a whirlwind of speed and punching his taloned fist straight through the chest of the first enemy unlucky enough to stand in his way. The dragon slayer surrounded himself in flame and let out a massive carnal roar before breathing fire, a Fire Dragon Roar bigger than any that the other Fairy Tail members had ever seen before. The fire reached the entire area the team had been fighting in, completely disintegrating every living piece of greenery in sight. All the team members ducked as the intense heat infiltrated the air.

When each of the team members looked back up they let out loud gasps.

The area around them, nearly 1,000 square yards of forest, had been desecrated. The ground was ashy and grey, completely devoid of life. In the middle of the newly created clearing was Natsu, splayed haphazardly on the ground, completely unconscious. Erza crept forward cautiously and looked around, noticing two other figures in the clearing. All the cloaked figures were gone except for one, lying motionless. The mage who had been tied up also was unconscious on the opposite end of the clearing. Lucy, Levy, Gajeel, and Happy all stood in the clearing staring at Natsu's still form in shock. Gray was sitting on the ground, still injured, trying to make sense of the situation around him, but found himself too exhausted to move. He slumped to the ground and his vision faded to black.

"Lucy," Erza said, snapping all the conscious members of the team out of their reverie, "go check on Gray. I'll see to Natsu. Levy, Gajeel, take care of our attackers." She rushed to Natsu's figure and knelt beside him, turning him to lay on his back and checking his breathing. The requip wizard sighed in relief when she heard his weak but regular breathing and picked up the wizard after deeming him unharmed with the exception of a few shallow wounds. She carried him to where Levy and Gajeel had taken the two enemy mages and addressed the two of them. "It seems that the army we faced was in fact one wizard all along" she said sternly. Levy took the hood off the culprit of the attack and uncovered a very average looking man, tousled brown hair and nondescript features.

"He must be some kind of mimic mage that can copy himself into an indefinite amount of identical people. What should we do with them Erza?" the blunette inquired.

"We should take them to the authorities in Beliran, the closest town. We have to catch the train there anyway, and it's only about a mile out." The team nodded and Erza left them to go to Lucy and Gray.

"How is he?" she asked, walking up to the blonde who was kneeling by Gray and wrapping his legs in bandages she had acquired from Virgo.

"He's unconscious and pretty hurt but nothing seems vital," Lucy replied solemnly. Erza explained the plan to her companion and picked up Gray on her other shoulder when he was fully bandaged. When the group reconvened together, Levy scripted some rope and a large cart into existence so they could pull the Natsu, Gray and the two enemy wizards to the nearest town. The group gathered their scattered belongings, which were somehow unharmed, and walked in silent contemplation, hoping their friends would awaken soon so they could get a complete story about what had actually happened during their fight. All of them had a sense of dread looming over their shoulders. There was no doubt more trouble on the horizon.


	8. In the Hospital Again

**I do not own Fairy Tail**

Natsu couldn't see or feel anything except for an excruciating throb in his temple. It felt like his brain was attempting to tear itself in two and pushed painfully against the sides of his skull. He slowly opened his eyes, only to find himself staring at a blank white ceiling. With great effort he moved his eyes and tilted his head to take in a bland hospital waiting room.

"Not again!" the boy groaned hoarsely. Natsu moved back to lay straight on his hospital bed, trying to block out the harsh lights of the room by squinting his eyes shut. This was now the second time in less than a week that he had woken up injured in an infirmary bed.

The dragon slayer stayed motionless, trying to fall back asleep so as not to feel his migraine anymore, but the sound of a door squeaking open snapped him out of his semi-conscious state. He turned his head and half opened his eyes to take in dark scarlet hair.

"Hey Erza" he greeted with a tired grin.

"Natsu" she acknowledged, nodding. Erza walked up to his bedside and crossed her arms.

"What happened? I have the worst headache ever!" Natsu complained, finally moving his body to bring a hand up to massage his temples.

"I was hoping you could tell me" she replied.

Natsu gave her a confused look and then stared at the ceiling trying to remember what exactly landed him in a hospital bed.

"Well.. I remember walking through the forest, and fighting with Gray a little, and then….oh and then these stupid hooded guys came from nowhere! And then we started fightin' em like usual!" Natsu rubbed his forehead as he slowly started remembering the battle. "And then…" his mind flashed to purple fire, a scream in the distance, Gray on the-"Gray!" Natsu gasped and bolted up, ignoring the searing pain in his head, "Where's Gray!?"

Erza who had been taken aback by the sudden outburst shook her head and lept to action, pinning Natsu's arms back to the bed and yelling at him "Calm down Natsu! Gray is fine! He's fine!" Natsu struggled against her grip yelling his need to see Gray. Erza, impatient with his behavior slapped him across the face and Natsu froze, looking at her with wide eyes.

"That's enough Natsu! Gray is fine, I was just with him a few minutes ago and he's only mildly hurt, he'll be okay." Erza forced him to hold her gaze and feel her sincerity before he breathed deeply and sank back into his bed, exhausted. "Good. Now do you remember anything after Gray getting hurt?"

Natsu squinted his eyes, trying desperately to recall the events after him getting to Gray but all he got was a throbbing pulse in his head at the attempt and he groaned in pain.

"No. I don't remember anything," he breathed out sharply, "just hurts a lot.." He kept his eyes shut but heard Erza moving away for a second before tapping his shoulder. He slowly opened one eye in question and his vision was met with a hand holding a glass of water and a small tablet.

"Here take this" the requip mage said softly, transferring the water and medicine into Natsu's hands. He sat up and threw the pill in his mouth before washing it down with a large gulp of water. He stared at the glass and furrowed his brow, his mind a mess of confused thoughts.

"You went berserk," Erza voiced, breaking through his thoughts. His head snapped up and looked at her with narrowed eyes. She met his gaze, clearly searching for answers that weren't there, or were at least incredibly hidden. "I didn't see much" she continued, "but what I did see was cause for concern. You looked..animalistic in a way, and let out a dragon slayer's roar that wiped out everything in sight before you passed out in the clearing. I didn't see much, just a lot of fire. It was pretty intense."

Natsu looked down in bewilderment at the hands resting in his lap. He then looked back at Erza with a confused gaze. "I really don't remember any of that…" The two continued to stare at the other for a couple moments before Erza turned abruptly around.

"Well Gray is stable and should be awake any moment. That medication should be helping with your own pain, let's go meet with the others and hopefully get going so we can return to Fairy Tail. Her boots clomped on the floor as she walked confidently out of the room. Natsu shook his head and slowly rose out of his bed to follow. His weak legs took a couple staggering steps before he regained his balance and walked out the door. He turned his head and saw the requip mage walking into another room a few doors down, so he followed her and pushed the door to the room open.

Upon entering the identical hospital room, he was bombarded with greetings from the rest of his team. Gajeel was making fun of him, the girls and Happy concerned, but he didn't notice any of it. He ran to the side of the hospital bed in the middle of the room and threw his head onto the chest of the unconscious body lying on top of it.

 _Thump thump...Thump thump..._

Natsu sighed in relief and relaxed on top of Gray's chest, reassured by the steady beating of his heart.

The rest of the room quieted down in confusion and observed the dragon slayer's strange behavior. He stayed there, breathing in time with ice mage.

"So Erza, what exactly….?" Lucy trailed off.

"He doesn't know," the requip mage replied, "It seems like he blacked out after he saw Gray was hurt."

The group remained silent, eyes trained on the pair in the middle of the small room. Suddenly the entire group jumped when Natsu's head shot up. He slowly brought his face close to the ice mage's, and stayed focused on the ice mage's face. After a couple of awkward moments, Gajeel cleared his throat.

"Uhhhh what the hell are you doing Pinky?" the iron dragon slayer asked.

"...he's waking up," Natsu replied, not moving an inch and completely oblivious to the group's confusion at his odd behavior. The other mages watched in anticipation and surely enough, Gray's eyes began twitching and slowly flickered open. His eyes cleared as he took in his surroundings and upon registering Natsu's face only inches from his own, the group watched his eyes widen.

"AHHHHHHHH!" The entire group panicked as the heard Gray let out a scream of terror and thrash around, pushing Natsu away and landing unceremoniously on the ground.

 _Gray felt like he was stuck in an eternal nightmare. He breathed heavily as he ran through a foggy, fire-ridden forrest. The flames seemed to be magnetically attracted to him, licking his bare skin and burning every inch of his body. He was running, running from a monster. He had seen if briefly, poking its horn-covered head through the fog and grinning sadistically at him. He knew if it caught him he would be done for, so he ran and ran and ran. His legs were exhausted, quickly running out of strength. Hey yelped as his foot caught on a branch protruding from the forest floor. He tumbled to the ground, pressure in his chest from breathing heavily. He tried to get up but found his legs no longer were capable of holding his weight, and he fell back into the dirt, lying on his back in an attempt to breathe._

 _A deep and menacing chuckle came out of the bushes beside him and he looked over in fear._

" _Well hey there Gray, nice to finally catch up with ya. That was a fun game of tag" a figure walked out of the forrest with a menacing smirk on its face. Gray tried desperately to stand back up, but the figure pounced out of the surrounding foliage and tackled the ice mage back to the round. He grunted as his back hit the dirt hard and his arms were held down by sharp, clawed fingers. Spots danced across his vision as he tried to make out the face of the being now straddling his torso._

" _Not so fast Gray," the creature said, tsking playfully, "you're not going 're_ mine _."_

 _Gray struggled as the monster's face got closer to his own, and gasped as he recognized the pink hair, split by strange curved horns, and the narrow black eyes. He had seen them before, in a memory he couldn't quite recall. The demon-man grinned widely and brought his lips to Gray's ear,_

" _You're it."_

Gray slowly regained consciousness and was relieved that the heat from his now-fading nightmare was no longer biting his skin. His eyes fluttered open, and slowly adjusted to the bright light invading them. As a face started coming into view his heart rate spiked and he began to panic. When his vision cleared, he screamed, the face of his nightmares, still there in front of him. He thrashed out and pushed the monster away, rolling over. He groaned as he fell farther than expected onto an incredibly hard tiled floor. His legs burned and his entire body ached as he attempted to sit back up. An arm grabbed his own and Gray looked up, afraid it would be the demon-man again but relieved to see a familiar blonde celestial mage offering her assistance and looking at him concernedly.

"Gray are you okay?!" Lucy asked. Gray grunted and attempted to rise.

"Yeah I'm good.." he replied, pulling himself painfully to his feet using Lucy and the hospital bed as aid to stand, "what the hell happened? Why am I in the hospital?" He rubbed his temple and took a deep breath, looking around the room after he was fully upright. His gaze flickered to each member of his team and landed finally on a certain fire mage.

Gray's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. _Natsu.. The demon from my dreams… they're so similar..it can't be…_ Gray's eyes suddenly widened as his memories from the battle before flashed back to him.

 _Fire suppressing fire on his legs, his friend's pupils consuming his eyes horns growing out of his scalp…_

 _I must be going crazy…_ Gray unknowingly backed up and jumped when his back hit the wall. Natsu looked at him in dejection and concern, confused by his behavior.

"I remember.." he whispered to himself and trailed off. Gray took a hesitant step toward the hot-headed dragon slayer, eyes wide and unblinking. Natsu, confused just stood there, unsure of what to do. Gray stopped in front of him, and raised a hand slowly to his rival's head. Gray's fingers sifted through soft pink hair and he paused at the top of his head, feeling for horns that were no longer there. When he was satisfied that all traces of the strange demonic Natsu were gone he stepped back and let his hand fall to his side.

The boys held each others' gaze and jumped when a throat cleared across the room.

"Well if you two are done getting romantically lost in each others' eyes," a rough voice of an iron dragon slayer interrupted, "I would like to get back to Fairy Tail so I can get my beauty sleep too." Gajeel rolled his eyes and walked out the door.

"Hey watch what you're saying Metal Head!" Natsu shouted in anger, snapped out of his reverie. He stormed after the other dragon slayer. "You get back here and fight me, you bastard!" The rest of the team followed Natsu out the door, Gray and Erza being left behind. Erza was quiet a moment before addressing her companion.

"What was that, Gray?" she asked. The ice mage continued staring at the door, lost in thought.

"Natsu… When he saved me from the purple fire.. He looked..well he looked.."

"He looked what?"

Gray paused and met Erza's eyes, expressing confusion but certainty. "Not human. But not dragon either. That was not our Natsu." Gray turned back to the door and left Erza in the hospital room, lost in thought and puzzled by Gray's words.

The ride back to Magnolia was quiet and tense. Everyone was exhausted and grumpy, as well as confused by the proceedings of the mission. Gray stared out his window as he absently pet Natsu's hair again. He had tried getting out of being Natsu's caretaker but the dragon slayed wouldn't stop asking and he didn't want to be thrown up on so he figured it would be the lesser of two evils.

When they arrived, Gray carried an unconscious Natsu out of the train. He tried to wake the fire mage but he wouldn't budge and inch, refusing to wake up even when Gray violently shook him. Gray growled in frustration and mumbled under his breath about idiot dragon slayers who could fall asleep anywhere.

"Oi! Erza! Take Natsu back to the guild, I wanna go home!" Gray shouted at his companion.

Erza turned to him grumpily and glared. "I'm going straight home, have someone else do it, I'm going to sleep." Erza promptly turned away and started walking toward the guild.

"But your place is practically next door the guild hall!" Gray yelled after her.

The requip mage stopped and Gray saw her shoulders tighten before her head snapped around. The glare she gave Gray could have shot lasers into his soul and Gray felt a shudder run through his entire body. He stuck his hands out in defense and backed up a few steps.

"Ya know what? Ha ha nevermind Erza, you just go get some nice rest now and I'll take care of it. Everything's all good over here, no need to stay! Ha. Haha. Ha." Gray chuckled nervously, praying he wouldn't be destroyed by the mighty Titania. Thankfully, she turned away and trudged on. Gray sighed in relief and turned to Lucy.

"How bout you Lucy? Can you take him? Please?"

Lucy frowned. "I'm going straight home too and he's been staying at my place every day for the last month, so no thanks." She took Happy, who had fallen asleep on her head, and cradled him in her arms. "I'll take Happy with me but it's up to you to get him to the guild or get him home."

Gray groaned and ran a hand through his hair in annoyance.

"How about you Gaj-" he stopped when he realized Gajeel and Levy were nowhere in sight. "Agh! Why me?!"

Gray walked to Natsu's side and picked him up bridal style, grunting under the heavy weight and grumbling under his breath.

"Stupid dragon slayers and their stupid heavy ass bodies and stupid sleeping." he mumbled under his breath, now also grumpy. "I mean why do I have to be his personal nurse all of the sudden anyway, this is ridiculous..." Gray adjusted the weight in his arms and continued on, smirking when Natsu made a sound of protest in his sleep about being jostled around.

 _Well, I could take him to the guild, but that's really far from my place, and I'm dead tired. His place is even farther away so no thanks. I could just take him to my place..._ Gray sighed in defeat. _Yay…_ He looked up to the night sky while he trekked through the empty streets of Magnolia. He suddenly remembered a song Ur used to sing, and began humming quietly as he walked. It was a song she used to sing to him and Leon on clear nights where you could see the stars, just like the one he was observing now. He didn't remember the words anymore, but Gray could remember how happy he felt when she would sing, and that this particular song was about always being able to find your way when you got lost, no matter where you were. He had dealt with feeling lost a lot as a kid, not knowing where life was going or why he was even bothering to try.

Gray looked at the mage in his arm and smiled subtly. _I guess I know why I keep going now.. Even though this guy is annoying as hell, I've found a place to belong.. Even if we fight all the time, it gives me something to look forward to, something to fight for. I never really had that before.._ Natsu let out a snore and Gray rolled his eyes. _But yeah, annoying as hell._ He frowned, _And now i have to carry this guy all the way home, stupid Fire Breath…_

Gray had never been happier to see his apartment in his life, Natsu was getting painfully heavy and his legs were just about to give out. He pulled his keys out of his pants pocket and struggled to unlock the door with Natsu still in his arms. He finally managed to accomplish the difficult task and pushed the door open, shutting it behind him and turning on the lights.

Gray's apartment was a good sized modern home. The front door led into a hallway that immediately opened up into a decent sized living room. A kitchen was to the left of the living room, a bedroom and bathroom through a door to the right. It was almost all grey furniture in white colored rooms. Not because Gray was only into dull colors, but because the landlord of the apartment had provided furniture and he wasn't really one to care about decoration or embellishment. After all, it's just a place to sleep. Gray carried Natsu through the living room and into his bedroom before tossing the unconscious body of his rival unceremoniously onto his bed. He walked half-asleep to the bathroom to brush his teeth and then stripped to his underwear and slipped into bed next to Natsu. He attempted to cover them both with his comforter and within moments of settling down on his back, fell fast asleep.


End file.
